Developing modern agriculture requires agricultural science and technology innovation teams and a strong talent pool.

Editor's Note

Developing modern agriculture requires agricultural science and technology innovation teams; increasing farmers' income requires innovation in agricultural management systems; building beautiful villages requires young and educated laborers. Talent is the source of momentum for the development of the agriculture, rural areas and farmers cause. Starting today, this section launches the “Strong Talent, Strong Agriculture, Rural Areas and Farmers” column, focusing on research results related to innovation by agricultural research teams, training of new-type professional farmers, cultivation of high-quality agricultural skilled talent, and innovation in talent training mechanisms, pooling wisdom and offering suggestions for solving problems such as “who will farm the land.”

⟦NL> Recently, the measured yield per mu of Hunan rice fields led by Academician Yuan Longping exceeded 1000 kg, once again demonstrating that the core driving force of agricultural development lies in agricultural science and technology, and the core of agricultural science and technology development lies in the “people” engaged in agricultural science and technology research and development. From a long-term perspective, two factors determine the quality of a country's human capital: the quantity and quality of the labor force. After World War II, the most important factor in the economic takeoff of Germany and Japan was the stock and increment of human capital.

⟦NL> Looking back at China's agricultural history, from Houji teaching the people to sow and reap, to the application of iron tools, from the use of green manure to the building of water conservancy and the opening of field boundaries, agriculture has always been a labor-intensive industry. In ancient times, the government encouraged early marriage and early childbearing, and even now remote rural areas pursue more children and more blessings, with a relatively high fertility rate following the same logic. Although China's traditional farming model accumulated a relatively advanced and colorful agricultural civilization, on the whole, the small-peasant economy still mainly relied on labor input, and this stage of development continued until the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China and even before reform and opening up. Contemporary agricultural development is also inseparable from the role of “people.” After the founding of New China, the quantity and quality of the labor force improved markedly, providing inexhaustible momentum for China's agricultural development. Under today's social conditions, agriculture is no longer a labor-intensive industry and has a higher demand for knowledge and technology, while the main body that masters knowledge and technology is still people. Several thousand years of agricultural development history fully show that people's subjective initiative and creativity are crucial to agricultural development, and strong talent makes strong agriculture, rural areas and farmers.

⟦NL> Whether from the perspective of developing modern agriculture and ensuring food security, or from the perspective of promoting economic growth and increasing farmers' income, full attention must be paid to the allocation of human capital in the process of agricultural development. At present, the problem of rural human capital allocation is mainly reflected in three imbalances.

⟦NL> The first is the structural imbalance of the agricultural labor force. People with knowledge and education go to cities to become “gold-collar” and “white-collar” workers, laborers with physical strength go to cities to become “blue-collar” workers, and those left behind without physical strength or education rely on agricultural experience to become “soil-collar” workers in rural areas. The labor force remaining in rural areas has a weak knowledge background and prominent aging. Of the more than 200 million rural laborers, only about 10 million can receive systematic training each year at present, making it difficult to adapt to the requirements of the new situation. Compared with agriculture, the labor force is more inclined toward industry. The second is the regional imbalance of the agricultural labor force. Considering regional differences in the degree of economic development, the agricultural labor force prefers to operate and produce in developed areas. Compared with the economically developed eastern regions, rural agricultural economic development in the west has broader market potential; compared with areas around cities, ordinary rural economic development has greater market potential. Finally, there is imbalance at the level of agricultural science and technology application. China's agricultural science and technology extension system has played a strong supporting role in solving the food problem of 1.3 billion people. At the national level, agricultural science and technology research and development is in a leading position internationally, but there is room for improvement in both the transformation of scientific research results and grassroots technology extension.

⟦NL> Developing modern agriculture must reverse the current imbalance in rural human capital allocation and provide a human foundation for the development of the agriculture, rural areas and farmers cause through systematic and comprehensive talent training mechanisms.

⟦NL> It is necessary to strengthen training for new-type professional farmers. Strengthen training for new-type agricultural business entities such as cooperatives, family farms, and large-scale growers, and strengthen training for the more educated labor force in rural areas. Strengthen the building of the rural broker workforce, and through multiple projects that bring science and technology, information, and services into villages and households, provide a more professional, intensive, and standardized agricultural production model so that ordinary rural laborers can more easily engage in modern agricultural production.

⟦NL> It is necessary to guide more high-quality talent into the agricultural sector. Encourage and guide college students and returning migrant workers to start businesses in rural areas, strengthen policy support for people returning home to start businesses from multiple angles such as financial support, infrastructure, and skills training, and create a good environment for high-quality talent returning home to start businesses.

⟦NL> It is necessary to further unleash scientific and technological productivity through more creative institutional reform. Strengthen the building of the rural grassroots science and technology extension system, innovate agricultural science and technology extension models, give play to the role of enterprises and other market entities in the science and technology extension process, and solve the last-kilometer problem of science and technology extension through the building of information systems and extension systems, maximizing the role of scientific and technological productivity.

⟦NL> Developing modern agriculture, promoting farmers' income growth, and building beautiful villages all require fully giving play to the role of human capital. At this important juncture in the transformation of China's agricultural modernization, rural talent must be further strengthened so that the development of the agriculture, rural areas and farmers cause will have a strong source of momentum.

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